Yesterday, former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R), one of Mitt Romney's top surrogates, slipped into anti-Obama hysteria yesterday, telling the media, among other things, that the president should "learn how to be an American."
Since I did an item on this yesterday, it's only fair to note that hours later, Sununu had a chance to calm down, pull himself together, and walk back his attack. He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer:
"I did say those words that are there. And, frankly, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have used those words. And I apologize for using those words.... I'm apologizing for using those words. I shouldn't have used them."
That's the good news. It took a few hours, but Sununu managed to stop foaming at the mouth just long enough to acknowledge he was wrong. That was the right thing to do.
The bad news is, I caught the rest of the Sununu interview. When he wasn't apologizing for his "mistake," the Romney surrogate was arguing that Obama said "businesspeople of America shouldn't take credit for building their businesses" (that never happened); he accused Obama of corruption (with no proof); he said Obama "denigrates American values" (which is absurd); he said the president sees rich people as "evil" (ridiculous); and he argued there's "a feeling amongst entrepreneurs that he is not a capitalist" (cheap nonsense).
All of this from Sununu, who also said yesterday the Obama campaign is "clearly and unequivocally a bunch of liars."
I don't imagine Sununu wants my advice, but I'm inclined to offer him a few tips anyway. First, try decaf. Second, look up "decency" in a dictionary and ponder whether you expect anyone to actually respect you. And third, if you want to accuse rivals of being "liars," try to avoid going on national television soon after and lying uncontrollably.
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Is he trying to be the next Rush Limbaugh?
Oh please ... once he's gone, do we really need to replace him?!?!?!
This Cuban born son of refugees that was forced to resign in disgrace 20 years ago because of improprieties is calling Our President unAmerican...!
Look to who the repub candidate picks as his surrogates and how he brands the President as other, foreign, scary, russian, etc...When he is the one that took American labor and creativity off -shore and used the FEES from their labor and credit to fund ECONOMIES of FOREIGN COUNTRIES to AVOID US TAXES!
Romeny bet AGAINST AMERICA AND AMERICAN PEOPLE....That is hardly the behavior of one who wants to be seen as PRO AMERICAN...leader!...He took those US dollars to other countries to screw US on taxes!
Who is really foreign by behavior...? It is not the President!
Pretty sad when they start digging up such has beens in an attempt to crawl out of the hole they dug.
I kind of wonder...how did they assemble that audience that was around him. They couldn't have been there just to hear a speech from this old windbag.
No...hes not trying to be the next Rush...he is doing a rather accurate job though of describing how our elected President is failing this country...and yes...we will need another voice for reason and liberty when Rush hangs up his microphone.
First it was the certifiably insane Republican house (repeating the same healthcare vote 33 times expecting a different result), now it's the roll-out of a Bush 1 relic who has absolutely no idea what he's talking about, so is Mitt trying to establish a totally new weird dynamic here to impress the voters?
Anyone else been the parent of a teenage who you could just...NOT...get...up...in the morning to do something?
"Not now! "Too early!" "Later!" "Too hard!"
Then - once you used the "cattle-prod" you had to put with this:
"Don't feel good!" "Don't have anything to wear!" "Don't want to!" "Too hard!"
That is what I think of when I see what the Republicans are doing in the House!!!!
And Sununu - more childish whining!!!
I agree the pres was taken out of context. But, he could have phrased it differently, and he gave the Repubs a 30 sec sound bite. No different than Romney's "I like to fire people". This whole campaign is sad. Talk issues
The persistent belief among people on the left that it is possible for a Democratic politician to avoid giving Republicans soundbites is simply an internalization of Republican abuse. It's like the way battered spouses blame themselves for provoking episodes of battering or, uglier still, the way many people will seek out some way to blame the victims of every tragedy as a means of distancing themselves from the possibility it could happen to them.
The idea that it is remotely possible for a Democratic politician to so conduct him or herself, and so manage his or her every word, so as to make it impossible for Republican operatives to clip a few words out of context is ridiculous. Even if we ran animatronic Disney robots who only spoke in meaningless, content-free platitudes without ever inverting word order or blowing lines or ad-libbing, and even if all of those words had been through hundreds of man hours of vetting for phrases that could be used in a Republican soundbite, it wouldn't stop them.
And the reason it couldn't stop them is a) Republicans are sociopaths and b) it is simply impossible to write a even a short, five minute speech with sentences that even just simulate meaning that doesn't have half a dozen words that can be snipped out of context and portrayed as a "gaffe."
Stop blaming the victim and focus on the wrongdoer.
Sorry for the rant, but this thing Democrats still often do of blaming the people on their side for bad stuff Republicans do in campaigns just drives me bugs**t crazy.
@Steve: good lord do I agree with you!!!
@Tom: Obama didn't give the repubs ANYTHING, gave them no 30 sec sound bite. In fact fox had to heavily edit/cut to get anything remotely negative about what Obama said. That is fact, Tom.
Romney's fire people statement was aired in its entirety and he sounded like an overblown *&%# hole.
The whole campaign is sad meme is bull as well.
Obama is speaking clearly, speaking facts, talking about the issues, and speaking the truth while doing so. You just don't want to hear what Obama has to say.
And you need to: in an earlier thread you were even uninformed about the medicare program that you receive, uninformed about exactly who wants to eliminate a program that you benefit from. You and folks like you need to educate yourselves in a big way. Voting against your best interests is what is sad. Not knowing who is looking out for your best interests is sad.
Thank you Steve
It's called making ShMitt up or in other circles - lying .
This is the Faux Nooze alt universe Obama they have created because the real one doesn't fit their narrative .
They live in a world where Steve Doocy is a serious newsman and only provides fair and balanced reporting
The hatred for this president emanating from now the heart of the mainstream Republican establishment should strike fear into every American. This is militant behavior. Mitt Romney and the Republican Party have gone completely over the edge and are now blatantly dealing in anti-American and truly offensive attacks on our president. The rhetoric used by the Obama campaign against Romney concern nothing more than the GOP nominee's highly public business record and his refusal to do what every single other modern presidential candidate has done -- release the entirety of their tax records. Romney is running on his business experience, so this is fair game. What Mitt's campaign is doing can only be described as terrorist behavior. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
The problem is the campaign surrogates get all their news from Fox. Fox has never shown the entire clip Sununu is foaming about. It is entirely possible Sununu and the rest of the Romney campaign surrogates have never seen the entire clip. For some reason our news media doesn't think it is necessary to point out that a review of the entire clip makes Sununu look like an ass to everybody except Fox News junkies. There are only so many Fox news junkies.
The primaries are over and Fox is just another cable news network. This is another example of the Romney campaign's incompetence. It is said that in the last campaign McCain fixated on MSNBC, somebody in the Romney campaign should do the same thing. It is bad when the entire campaign lives exclusively in its own propaganda echo chamber.
Mr. Sununu is too smart to make that kind of "accidental"mistake. That had to have been code to the far right.
I am truly disgusted by the GOP continuing to further that line of attack. If you research the constitution and federal law as long as one of your parents is a United States citizen in good standing it DOES NOT MATTER WHERE YOU WERE BORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even if he was born in Kenya President would still be a Natural Citizen because his mother was a natural citizen.
Please continue the good work Ms. or should I say Dr. Maddow!
Actually, I don't think he's that smart. And the man has a decades-long reputation for combining an anger management problem with a disposition that's just plain nasty and mean.
This anecdote about Sununu from the days after Ted Kennedy died has stuck with me.
Sununu's rep is one of being the worst kind of abusive dick to work with or for--the kiss up, kick down kind. I have no doubt he was speaking from his black, hateful, misanthropic heart. I have no doubt that he spewed the bile knowing well that he would strike a responsive chord in the crazy fox-toxed white people base. I doubt very seriously it was pre-meditated, but I also have no doubt that Romney has him on board precisely because he can say stuff like this and get away with it because of his rep.
Okay, I have to retract this. Apparently, this was quite deliberate and the Romnoids are gloating to buzzfeed about how they're "taking the gloves off."
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/how-the-romney-campaign-decided-to-take-the-gloves
Presumably, they'll also apologize when a surrogate finally accidentally on purpose break what the Balloon-Juice crowd calls "the NI-*clang*! Event Horizon."
Sununu is both a coward and a bully. Which is why he's a Republican.
Whether that was calculated by Sununu or not (I'm inclined to think it isn't), what really gets to me is the propensity of the GOP to pander to their Republican nut base while simultaneously alienating the liberals with Hate Speech--not differing views on policies and issues, but Hate Speech, and most of it is directed at the President. I've never seen such hatred at an individual. Even at Bush's lowest point, I'm not sure if I heard such vitriol directed at him--at least not from within Congress. Was it because the Dixie Chicks got such a poor reception for speaking out against him? How is it that a bunch of country music fans booing a rock band has a bigger impact than half a nation decrying un-American rhetoric?
Sununu as a hatchet man is not new, but he went completely off the rails yesterday. Could he have been “smoking something” before his rant?
He was smoking rush limbaugh. All this line he was spouting came straight from rush. The romney people found this idiot to deliver the message, that's all. He is expendable.
Is this how American politics are going to work from now on ??
Say whatever you want, through Fox News. Get your hate out there for the low-IQ Fox "emo" viewers (who BELIEVE anything). Let it rest a day (so these viewers have time to get the word out.) Then, give a really lame apology- where you can almost see him *winking*.
As much as I hate to think this - we seem to have a real weakness in the First Amendment.
It's not a weakness in the First Amendment; it's a weakness in the GOP, that they can't act honestly and in the interest of Americans.
John Sununu another failure from another rethugliCON administration! First off John before you start projecting onto "other" actions/behavior that has been on display by the whole GOTP, you might want to make sure it's only on FAUX NOISE - you know the propaganda channel that's more than willing to play the game!
Second, Mittens I realize that you really are just grasping at straws here, but you might want to reconsider those "surrogates" that you've embraced - you should be embarrassed but hey "whatever works" right Mittens?!
Third the fact that the GOTP is foaming at the mouth right now, is further proof that they are afraid that all of their "efforts" regarding the do-nothing Congress, voter suppression/disenfranchisement, attacking "other" - women/LBGT/children/elderly/immigrants along with the democrats actually showing a bit of spine - is working effectively! Yet still WE can not become complacent!
Get registered, get active, vote out the GOTP in November!
The Grand Old Psycho party has dug up anothe Michell Bachmann out of the piles of republican ashes.The ashes off of whatever they've been smoking.
Question--Who is the GOP's minister of propaganda?
That's easy FAUX NOISE...
"Envy of the world, it's the *Amercian way!"
Nothing says humble and humility like John "Sunoco", a true leader's advocate (not)!
Gee, a foreigner determining who is or isn't American. I'm impressed. The tealiban at it's finest.
Apparently Sununu learned how to be a propagandist in Havana, Cuba.
All this ridiculous anti-Obama hysteria will simply backfire. The tired American people will quickly notice how stupid the GOP looks like when they proudly open their mouths.
think Romney should release his tax returns to prove he is american
If I learned anything during the Bush years, it's that saying anything bad about the President is Anti-American and unpatriotic.
Why do you hate America so much John Sununu? Where is your patriotism sir? When will you learn to be an American and support your President?
Put him in his place and keep him in the doghouse. I want to say that I love the way you speak truth to power, but in this case it's more of a fend-off-the-rabid-beast.
Rachel,
You are a master debater!! Can you please moderate a debate. It would be killer!!
The comparison between Rush and Sununu is apt. Has Sununu received multiple prescriptions for Oxycontin recently? His rhetoric is addled, perhaps it's drug addled.
Ms. Maddow, I am a major fan of yours, enjoy your show, and have no issues with you. However, I did hear (heard it live) the President saying "if you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else did" If I have misquoted, my apologies, but that is my best recollection of what he said. You assert that this 'never happened'. Could you please explain this to me? Perhaps I just do not understand?
Thank you kindly.
Yeah, you didn't hear it right, but you look young enough to have been through an education system that didn't teach you how to think, so I'll forgive you and point out what the ENTIRE COMMENT said, and I'll do it in simple words so even you can understand.
No business can start, let along thrive, without an infrastructure. Like the real estate people say, location location location. The business is on a street, right? Did the businessman build the street? No, we did - we the people acting through our government to get the things we ALL need in order to have any success. So, nobody was successful all on their own. They were successful because the COMMUNITY they live in provided the resources that gave them the opportunity to work hard and gain success. But they didn't do it out of whole cloth.
Do you now understand, you 30-nothing moron?
Now, now, be nice. Thanks for posting the context, but the question seemed polite, and so should the answer be. We're not Republicans!
hello gary...here's the few extra sentences surrounding the quote in question
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.
Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."
at the risk of over-explaining.... the "that" is referring to the roads and bridges and other basic infrastructure that government built.
ps
i got a romney fundraiser email today from matt rhoades [info@mittromney.com] using the out of context quote
Sununu has never been too bright. He's now learned the Romney "hyperbole" sic. lying process. Just say it, it doesn't have to be true.
Then he (Sununu) made the statement on CNN "if the president is re-elected then corporations will take their trillions elsewhere!" So how un-american can that get!
What sort of "American" name is Sununu? Wasn't he born in Cuba? (as a matter of fact, he was) Doesn't he have a corporate jet he needs to abuse the use of?
Thank you again, Steve, what would i do without my morning MaddowBlog info fix?
Continue the great work